Smoking

Frederick Mathis wrote in favor of having the state legislature raise the age to buy cigarettes ( "Raise the tobacco purchase age to 21," Jan. 26). Many people decry a government action such as this as an intervention into one's free choice. Respecting that position, that it is one's Fourth Amendment right not to have private choices infringed upon by the government, may I suggest that taxpayers who subsidize their choices with eventual Medicare costs or augmented health care costs and premiums have the right not have to pay for the free and poor choices of those who willingly choose to behave in a habit that is documented as being dangerous and destructive to their health?

It's sad to see Michael Phelps in the news again, not for his athletic accomplishments but for driving drunk - again ( "Phelps faces second charge," Oct. 1). Now he's gone from wayward youth making a bad decision to a problem drinker and public menace. He should have made the smart choice, given up drinking for good and smoked marijuana instead. Then, instead of driving around like an idiot risking other people's lives, he would have been sitting at home on his couch watching TV and eating potato chips.

A 77-year-old woman died in a fire in her Owings Mills home early Sunday morning, and Baltimore County firefighters attributed her death to a blaze started with discarded smoking materials. The fire occurred shortly after 8 a.m. in the first block of Straw Hat Road, just north of Owings Mill Boulevard. Marlene Miller was pronounced dead at the scene of the fire. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy. Gus.sentementes@baltsun.com Twitter.com/gussent

Dumser's soft ice cream cones were still twirled perilously high, Thrashers' french fries were still doused in vinegar, and the surf was clear and cold as ever, but there were signs of change in Ocean City this summer. In some cases, literally: Town officials posted signs along the boardwalk asking visitors to refrain from using profanity. It was an unusual move in an interesting season at Maryland's most popular resort town. The planning board discussed curtailing weekly rentals in some neighborhoods but ultimately rejected the idea.

In regard to your editorial recommending Congress raise the cigarette tax ("Where there's smoke…" July 9), just observe how motorists have limited their auto use when gas was almost $4 per gallon - none at all. Or just look in Baltimore's alleys, streets and sidewalks to see how cigarettes are now smoked right down to the filter to save money, making the experience more toxic than ever. Or see how more and more people smoke outdoors and in their homes because smoking is not allowed indoors in all places.

The Maryland Stadium Authority's decision to prohibit smoking at both Camden Yards and at M&T Bank Stadium is great news for sports fans ("State Authority bans smoking at M&T Stadium, Oriole Park," Feb. 26). Secondhand smoke causes serious disease and premature death among nonsmokers, and there is no safe level of exposure. A study conducted at the University of Maryland Baltimore County found that even outdoors, nonsmokers up to a distance of 23 feet away or more are still exposed to carcinogens.

Mary MacVean of Tribune Newspapers must be a smoker ("Are we sitting ourselves to death?" Aug. 28). Her article about sitting being as dangerous as smoking cigarettes has just given the remaining selfish smokers another fallacious argument to add to, "Why don't they make potato chips and ice cream illegal?" Now they can add, "why don't they make sitting illegal?" No one reasonable person concerned about health can accept the argument that sitting is more dangerous than smoking.

During the last decade, local, state and federal governments have sought to make smoking inconvenient by restricting where and when people can light up. They have made it more expensive by increasing taxes - to the point that a pack of cigarettes costs at least $10.50 in New York City. They have tried to make it scary by requiring ever larger and blunter warnings about the health risks of smoking on cigarette packaging. And they have worked to make it un-cool, most recently with a new advertising and social media campaign this week aimed at teens.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer's recent announcement that he intends to ban smoking in executive-branch offices is an overdue recognition of the health hazards posed by tobacco smoke in the work place. Maryland's high cancer death rate inevitably is linked to such known cancer-causers as cigarette smoking.The governor's move is, indeed, a healthy step toward persuading smokers to limit or cease their consumption of tobacco while also providing a less polluted working environment for tens of thousands of non-smoking state employees.

In Steve Kilar's article "Families, neighbors mourn lives cut short" (Jun 15) about the deaths of teenage friends Courtney Angeles and Emerald Smith after they were struck by a hit-and-run driver, he states "Outside Courtney's home, mostly young mourners smoked cigarettes to calm their nerves. " There is no medical proof that cigarette smoking in young teens calms nerves. Implying this may cut other young teens' lives short, though. And trust me, they won't be dying calmly. G.P. Webb

Mary MacVean of Tribune Newspapers must be a smoker ("Are we sitting ourselves to death?" Aug. 28). Her article about sitting being as dangerous as smoking cigarettes has just given the remaining selfish smokers another fallacious argument to add to, "Why don't they make potato chips and ice cream illegal?" Now they can add, "why don't they make sitting illegal?" No one reasonable person concerned about health can accept the argument that sitting is more dangerous than smoking.

Ocean City officials voted earlier this week to draft a law to restrict smoking on the beach and boardwalk beginning May 1, 2015. The proposed ordinance, which passed on a 4-3 vote at a work session for the town council on Tuesday, identifies a number of designated areas for smoking along the boardwalk and on the beach. Police will be responsible for enforcement of the law through verbal as well as written citations ranging from $25 to $1,000, a "worse-case scenario" for non-compliance.

Competition barbecue, testing man's primal abilities to make fire and cook meat, returned Saturday to downtown Bel Air, with 57 teams of passionate chefs smoking up beef, chicken and pork for more than 80 judges who took an oath to uphold "excellence in barbecue and the American way of life. " In the thick of the 14th annual Maryland State Barbecue Bash was George Hensler and his award-winning Harford County team, Who Are Those Guys? Hensler, along with teammates Al Smith and Bobby Zengel, have been on the barbecue circuit for several years now. They know the routine: Chicken, spare ribs, pulled pork and beef brisket barbecued, hopefully to succulent perfection, for several hours in charcoal-fired smokers, then presented in that order over the course of two hours to judges certified by the Kansas City Barbecue Society, the competition's sanctioning body.

A local high school graduate who joined the Israel Defense Forces last year has been wounded in Gaza, his father said Monday. Jordan Low, a 19-year-old sharpshooter in Israel's Golani Brigade, was one of 15 soldiers investigating what they believed was a Hamas weapons cache in northern Gaza on Sunday when two rockets struck the building, according to Jeffrey Low of Pikesville. Jordan Low suffered injuries consistent with smoke inhalation, his father said. He was recovering Monday in the intensive care unit at Rabin Medical Center in Tel Aviv.

Around 3 billion people worldwide cook in their homes over fires fueled by everything from wood and eucalyptus leaves to dried cow dung and quinoa and every year, the World Health Organization estimates, 4 million people die because of the smoke. The problem is the smoke from many home cooking fires is not properly vented outside. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is working to develop a safer way to cook for more than half of the world's population. The project aims to decrease the amount of harmful smoke residents of rural communities can be exposed to using cookstoves in thatched huts with little ventilation.

Anyone who wants a job next year at Anne Arundel Medical Center — whether as a surgeon or security guard — will have to prove they don't smoke or use tobacco. The Annapolis hospital's new hiring policy might be controversial, but it is legal in Maryland and more than half of the United States. And it's a type of job screening that is gaining favor with employers — from hospitals to companies such as Alaska Airlines — trying to control rising health costs and cultivate a healthier, more productive workforce.

Under a bill introduced by state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., the state would block local governments from passing their own rules on public smoking areas. Supporters of the proposal, which would not affect existing local laws, say it would promote uniform smoking legislation. The measure also would make it a crime for anyone under 18 to possess tobacco products and require every business with 50 or more employees to adopt a written policy about smoking.Should the state pre-empt local governments from passing no-smoking laws?

The North Point Library is offering a free six-week course to help smokers quit. Greta Brand, a health consultant, will lead the weekly one-hour sessions that start at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The class, paid for with a grant from the Tobacco Restitution Fund, includes free nicotine gum, patches and lozenges. Registration is requested. The library is at 1716 Merritt Blvd. Information: 410-887-7255. mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com

The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore announced Wednesday that it will no longer permit visitors to smoke on its grounds beginning July 1. The zoo said that it will ask visitors to leave the grounds to smoke or use tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. The zoo had previously prohibited smoking inside buildings under the Clean Indoor Air Act of Maryland, which was passed in 2007. The zoo's decision comes after the City Council voted this year to ban smoking near playgrounds, swimming pools and ball fields.

The U. S. Preventive Services Task Force, made up of 16 medical experts appointed by the federal government's Department of Health and Human Services, has recently recommended that former and current smokers, ages 55 to 80, receive annual CT scans to test for lung cancer. If the recommendation is put into effect, insurers, as a result of Obamacare, would be required to cover the procedure for around 10 million Americans who would qualify. To be sure, the requirement, as compared with chest rays and illustrated by a study by the National Cancer Institute, could result in a 20 percent decrease in deaths from smoking.